The famous selfie.
NBC Los Angeles screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

When it comes to a criminal case, it's never enjoyable to be a person of interest.

Too often, persons of interest become judged through the media as "persons who did it."

So some might have concluded, after police in Santa Clarita, Calif., released an image of a couple in bed and said that it had been uploaded to the iCloud account associated with a stolen iPhone.

The man in the picture, Larry Beltran Jr., has now come forward to offer words that, along with "you don't understand," carry a troubling element of persuasiveness. In Beltran's case, he wants people to know that it isn't what they might think.

As NBC Los Angeles reports, Beltran went to the police to explain that he'd been given the iPhone by his aunt. She, in turn, explained that she'd bought two iPhones at a swap meet for $80 and given one to her nephew.